Water spill on MacBook ... nothing happened?

Hey guys,

so about a week ago I spilled some water (half a glass) over my Macbook, shut it off immediately, wiped the water on the screen and the keyboard and let it dry. One day later I ran Apple Diagnostics which reported no problems so far and kept it drying afterwards until now.

Today I opened the Macbook to see what actually happened. Expected corrosion and so on but actually everything seemed normal to me except for a few things, but then again I'm really a beginner so that's why I wanted to ask here (the experts :D ).

Things I noticed (see pictures):

2 case screw holes were blue (corrosion?) -> I tried to remove it with Qtips but since these holes are so tiny, it didn't work. I also checked the surrounding logic board but everything seems normal to me.

The bottom cover had some signs of water spill --> do I have to clean these? And if so, how would I do it?

.. but apart from that I didn't see any strange things. It would be really cool if you could tell me what to especially look for. I tried to find the moisture sensors but weren't able to (how do they even look if they come in contact with water?)

same thing happened to my macbook 2016 yesterday i tripped and spilled a little bit of water on the left side it did not get in the speaker in the front luckily. Well i never tuned it off i kept using it after the spill it was only like a few drops everything is working 100 percent fine plus i don't think the water got in the keyboard cuz i cleaned it off immeadetly in like 2 seconds also the keys are so much lower then the pros so i think i am ok i left the macbook upside down all night and there was no water i don't think any water got in hope this helps ;)

today my daughter was drinking her milk and threw up it got my macbook air. that's why I'm here looking for an answer, well when she threw up some of that went on my laptop. i'll update you guys after a month. i can feel the keys where the threw up is kind a sticky.

8 Cevap

I got one of these 2015 in today with a spill. This is the best protected logic board I have seen to date on liquid getting through to the logic board. I've let the keyboard dry out and will reassemble tomorrow. Since it was not turned on while it was wet, I have very high hopes that a cleaning of these keyboard may well be all it needs. If not I will keep you posted on my progress.

Glad that your MacBook still works, but that's surprising, because you did the worst possible thing you could have. You turned it on when it was full of water. As far as your battery goes, I would suggest you try to find somebody with the same model that uses the same battery put their battery in and see if it works. If it does, and just go buy a new battery.

Just posting a success story to improve morale. Macbook got completely soaked, left out in the rain. I did all the wrong things, put power on it to try and SMC. Took it apart even though I knew it would void the warranty because this has happened twice before and put me back $500 each time. Pulled the party and disconnected mag port, let dry for 2 days.

2 days later hook everything up and try to boot, nothing but a dim light.... heart broken. I then notice some corrosion on the logic board, run to the store and get some alcohol and a tooth brush. Got rid of corrosion, cleaned mag port, powered right on.

Had a similar but not as serious story. Cup of ice water. Immediately flickered and crashed, normally a bad sign. Inverted and left it for 12 hours. Tried turning on, screen flickered and switched off. This is one hour later and it's working perfectly. I am typing it on my Mac now.

On the second to last picture you can see two little white dots beneath the battery, those are the liquid indicators. If water gets on them they turn red.

Since the water went through the keyboard and you immediately turned it off and over to dry it, it's no surprise that the water did not reach the liquid indicators.

As you can see in this picture https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig... the keyboard back light is like a thin film so it acts like a water barrier between the keyboard and the logic board. Since you acted fast, it seems that you saved your computer from death, good job!

If your computer does start acting up, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the keyboard, which also includes the power button.

As for the blue. I know that for some little chips and parts on the logic board and computers themselves manufacturers like to write with a sharpie and it could be that they wrote with a blue sharpie and the water came in contact with that writing and smeared it around your laptop. That is just a guess.

I think the blue on the screw hole is more likely to be Loctite #242 threadlocker, an assembly adhesive used to keep screwed connections stable. Loctite comes in various colors, which indicate how strong the hold is. You can break the seal of #242 blue with hand tools, but you have to use heat to break the seal of #271 red Loctite. If you do a teardown of a new Apple laptop, you'll find several screws with traces of blue Loctite

Hey guys, something similar happened to mine. It happened on Sunday. A friend of mine accidentally spilled water on the left side, by the caps and shift keys. I wasn't there when it happened. He said it wasn't a lot of water and he quickly dried it off. But he did not disconnect the power cable or shut it off. The computer stayed on until I got back and shut it off like an hour later. On Tuesday (today) I powered it on and everything seems to be working just fine. I'm not sure if I should take it to the store to have it checked since it's still under the one year warranty. What should I do? Thanks!

Same thing happened to me recently... I also shut it off immediately, wiped the water on the screen and the keyboard and then let it dry for almost two days. As far as I could check, everything is working except the headphone jack. I do have sound in the speakers but it seems I lost the jack.

Can anyone tell me if this can be repaired or does it mean I have to replace the whole logic board?

The same happened with me about a week back. The Macbook Pro (retina) was switched off when the spill happened. I tried powering on the Macbook but it did not work.

I dried out the MacBook Pro with a hair dryer and also by putting it in the sun for four days. Some water also seems to have crept into the screen.

The good news is that now my Macbook works only when the power is plugged in. The Macbook does not work when I try to get it to start on battery. The battery indicator does not show a charge and says battery needs replacement.

Since I'm based out of India service is provided by third party service provider and they have not been helpful at all.

Has anyone faced similar problems? Can this be fixed? This was my first MacBook and it had only been 3 months since I bought it :-(. .

Batteries are very likely to die after a liquid spill; even if the computer is turned off, there's still a big store of electricity available to react to the liquid. It's reasonable to replace the battery after a spill, just in case. Since System Information detects the battery well enough to say it needs replacement, that suggests that the sensors still work, and so the charging system may also work. Open the computer, look at the battery, get the model number off the label, and hunt down a replacement. iFixit sells 15" Retina batteries for US$110-130, depending on the generation. iFixit only has 13" Retina batteries for the 2012-early 2013 generations at the moment. You might check Google, eBay, Alibaba or PowerBookMedic for other options. The Retina batteries are glued to the top case - it's an ugly job to get them out. Check your keyboard; if it's also having problems, you might want to solve both issues at once by replacing the top case.

@ Karsten Morks: I've got a similar problem that isn't even a real problem anymore.

I bought a 13” MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar on ebay well over a year ago. Someone spilled a drink with a lot of sugar on the keyboard and the screen. I knew that I was taking a big risk here.

The good news is: It is still working like a charm! Apart from the keys that were sticky and weren't working in the first place (question mark, return key etc.), which I replaced / reprogrammed with the fantastic software Karabiner-Elements I am using it totally normal. Everything work: ports, speakers, microphone, Touch Bar, sound is great and the stains from the liquid on the display even disappeared nearly completely over time!

My anxious question is: Is there a possibility that my nice little 13” MacBook Pro beast will suddenly die on me out of the blue someday? After all that time that it has worked flawlessly? Like a time bomb, so to say? Or am I safe now?

Is it possible that the corrosion on the inside works its way to the motherboard and kills it? I wish that this scenario was totally unrealistic. Is it?